


Prompt 18: Late night craving

by emmaknitsalot



Series: Flufftober 2020 [5]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Human, Clary Fray & Alec Lightwood Friendship, Clary Fray and Alec Lightwood BROTP, Fluff, Flufftober 2020, Gen, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pregnancy Cravings, Pregnant Clary Fray, Prompt Fill, Rating is for swearing, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:14:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27175744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmaknitsalot/pseuds/emmaknitsalot
Summary: "Alec wasn’t really mad about trekking six blocks to the convenience store to buy Clary her disgusting snacks before the sun was even up."Or, Magnus works the night shift at a convenience store and Alec really needs some candy corn.
Relationships: Clary Fray/Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Flufftober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961794
Comments: 41
Kudos: 202
Collections: Hunter's Moon Fic Recs





	Prompt 18: Late night craving

**Author's Note:**

> Flufftober 2020 prompts found at vex-bittys dot tumblr dot com.
> 
> Mature rating is for swearing, no smut.

“Alec.”

Snore.

“Alec.”

Grunt.

“Alexander!”

“Huh?” Alec rolled off the couch and hit the rug in a tangle of faded sheets. “ Wassappenin?” He couldn’t even _see_ , what the fuck. “Why’d you crack out the full name, Fray? Izza baby comin’?”

“I really, really want some of that weird disgusting brown stuff that Australian people eat. Mighty Veg or whatever it’s called.”

Clary Fray, or Herondale now he supposed, was looming over him in the dark like some kind of demented land whale in a night dress. But he would never ever tell her that. He valued his testicles too much. Her hair was down and wildly tangled, and she had definitely passed the glowing stage of pregnancy that all the women in her due group told her was a thing. Alec honestly wasn’t sure it was a thing at all with Clary, she turned into the Hulk almost immediately after conception and Jace was lucky he got deployed when he did (Alec would never ever tell her that either). Clary wasn’t expecting Jace to be back for another seven months, but Alec knew better.

“You want some Vegemite.” Alec was not awake yet, because it was _two in the morning_. 

“Yes.” Clary wiggled. She looked like a little kid who needed to pee (and swallowed a basketball).

“The baby isn’t coming.” Alec’s legs were still twisted in the sheets.

“No, Alex _ander_ , the baby isn’t coming.” She raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. “It’s only been eight months.”

Alec groaned and sat up. “Yes, Fray, I know that. Eight months is only one less than nine months and it could have come early!”

“Well it hasn’t yet, thank fuck, now would you please go and get some Vegemite for me?”

“Why the fuck you wanna eat that shit?” He heaved himself up off the floor and blindly felt around for a t-shirt. 

Clary just gestured at the vague shape of her belly under her nightdress. “Chop chop, Alexander! They sell it at that little 24hr convenience store, you know the one, they have those huge bags of candy corn all year—oh! Get me some of them too—do we have bread?” She wandered off to the kitchen and Alec felt a bit queasy. He was sure she was having him on sometimes, his internet research said that pregnancy cravings usually petered out by the third trimester but Clary’s were just getting weirder. Last week she ate nothing but cabbage and Alec would literally vomit if he ever smelled it again. 

He grabbed his keys and wallet and headed to the door of the apartment. “What do I get out of this Fray?” he yelled in the general direction of the fridge where Clary was buried. 

“It’s your best friend duty, Lightwood! _And_ you get a headstart on your Godparently duties by feeding the little beast before it’s even born,” she yelled back, muffled by what sounded like the pantry now. 

“I regret all the choices that led to me introducing you and Jace!”

“No, you don’t!”

*

Alec wasn’t really mad about trekking six blocks to the convenience store to buy Clary her disgusting snacks before the sun was even up. He was currently living on her and Jace’s couch for free—his freelance editing jobs have dried up lately—and he considers this part of his rent. He also buys all the groceries and pays for the internet connection as Jace’s marine salary wasn’t that much, certainly not enough to feed three people (when he was home), pay the rent in an NYC apartment, all the bills, and make sure there’s enough for the baby when it comes. They could all move somewhere cheaper, he supposed, but New York was their home and none of them could imagine living anywhere else. Besides, everyone he knows and loves is in New York. His sister Isabelle is studying paramedicine at NYU and is still living at home along with Max, their little brother, who hasn’t finished high school yet. Alec had had a disagreement with their parents about his career choices (that he was starting to think was fair considering his current lack of income), but sheer stubbornness (and of course his dedication to Clary and the baby) was stopping him from moving back home too. Jace’s military choice has so far been the only career their conservative parents approved of (although Alec was the only one that knew that when Jace returned from this deployment, he wasn’t going back).

He finally made it to the store and walked through the door with the clacking of a beaded door curtain. The person behind the counter didn’t even look up from their phone. To be fair, it was nearly three in the morning now, and honestly who was going to come in here looking for _Vegemite and candy corn_ at three in the morning. In _July_. 

(Alec, apparently). 

He found the Vegemite straight away. Jace had got a taste for it a few years ago when Alec _very briefly_ dated a sunkissed blond surfer boy from Sydney who had left a jar of it in their kitchen when he went home. Clearly, the sperm that won the race to Clary’s egg had been a Vegemite-loving one. It wouldn’t surprise Alec in the slightest if it also liked to pick its nose, and lift heavy weights to impress girls. Jace was so very painfully heterosexual it made Alec cringe sometimes. 

After a fruitless search for the cursed yellow and orange triangles, Alec gave up and made a beeline to the coffee pot at the back of the store. It was a dollar and it wasn’t great but it was caffeine and the coffee machine back at the apartment was on the fritz. He wasn’t going back to sleep now anyway so he thought he’d try and make some headway on a children’s story he’d had an idea for. He was hoping to present it to Clary as a gift when the baby was born, and he was lowkey hoping she’d want to illustrate it. Alec was crap at drawing. Clary, of course, was brilliant. She had a degree in fine arts from NYU and her latest job was a series of beautifully illustrated wine bottle labels. All six of them were currently living on their kitchen bench, but Clary had banned everyone from partaking in alcohol consumption around her because she couldn’t drink, and was pettily jealous. Clary Fray _loved_ wine.

He took his one-dollar coffee and jar of Vegemite to the counter to pay but as soon as the person behind the counter looked up from their phone, Alec forgot which way was up. Alec had never seen a more attractive man in his life which was unfortunate because Alec was wearing his rattiest t-shirt and questionably stained sweatpants. He looked down. He was relatively certain it was toothpaste. God, he hoped it was toothpaste.

“Candy corn!” he blurted, then closed his eyes in mortification. It was way too early for this shit.

“Candy corn,” the beautiful man repeated in the kind of voice that went straight to Alec’s dick. Goddamnit. He was never going to hear the words ‘candy corn’ the same way again. 

“Do you have any?” Alec asked. “My Clary needs some to go with this.” He plonked the jar of Vegemite down on the counter and blinked owlishly at the man, hoping he didn’t notice the stains on his sweatpants.

“Your Clary is going to eat candy corn with Vegemite?” The beautiful man (he really needed to get a glance at his name-tag) looked confused and a bit green. Alec didn’t blame him at all.

“Pregnant,” Alec said. “There was like, a whole week where she only ate halloumi cheese dipped in chocolate.”

It was probably (definitely) Alec’s imagination, but the man seemed disappointed. “I suppose a congratulations is in order then? You must really love your wife if you’re out at three am buying _Vegemite_ , of all things.”

“I don’t have a wife,” Alec said, taking a huge gulp of scalding, stale black coffee.

The man—Alec squinted at the name tag, it said ‘Magnus’—raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Girlfriend then, I’m not one to judge,” he replied, as he scanned the Vegemite jar. “Though I am quite concerned about combining candy corn and Vegemite.”

“God no, what, I don’t have a girlfriend.” Alec was very confused. It was very early in the morning and the man—Magnus—was very, very pretty. 

“Your Clary?” Magnus said pointedly, leaning on the counter. Even his elbows were perfect. _Pull yourself together, Alec. Jesus Christ_. 

“Ew, no, she’s not my girlfriend.” He finished his stale coffee. He thought he should perhaps go and get another one. “I’m like, super gay. So, so gay.” He scrubbed at his face with his hands. “She’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since elementary school and I mistakenly introduced her to my brother Jace and now they’re married and expecting but Jace is off in Afghanistan so it’s my job to look after her, and they named me Godfather? Which is super weird because they aren’t religious and like, why can’t I be the cool gay uncle? I’d even settle for the creepy gay uncle, to be honest.” He took a breath. “You are very beautiful, I have no filter right now, it’s like three am. Please don’t punch me. Seriously, is there candy corn? Because I’m a bit scared of her.”

Magnus’ smile was growing wider by the second, which Alec liked to think of as a good thing. “I have some candy corn out back. It’s about three days off its use by date though, just so you know.” 

“Does candy corn actually have a use-by date?” Alec wondered. Magnus made his way into the back room, supposedly to get the almost out of date candy corn and Alec decided to go pour a second coffee. He clearly needed it. 

They met back at the counter. Alec figured he had nothing to lose at this point in his life so he requested a pen from Magnus, pulled a screwed up bit of paper from his sweatpants pocket and wrote his number on it. “You’re super pretty, I’m super gay, and definitely not cheating on my pregnant wife, since I don’t have one, please text me when it isn’t the dead of night?” He pushed the paper with his number on it at him and fumbled for his wallet. 

“I’d love to,” Magnus said, taking the twenty Alec handed him. “But I don’t know your name.”

“It’s Alexander.” _What the fuck_. “Alec, it’s Alec, no one calls me Alexander.” He was never coming back to this store again, he didn’t care how badly Clary needed Vegemite in the future. 

“Alexander.” Magnus smiled and handed him his change.

*

It was nearing four am when Alec finally made his way up their fourth-floor walk-up. He opened the door as quietly as he could and put Clary’s snacks in the kitchen. All was silent. He crept through to the living room to see Clary fast asleep in his spot, hugging a quite deflated couch cushion. He went over and slid his arms gently under her bulk. He would never ever tell her that he thought of her as a bulk weight. “Mighty veg candy corn,” she gurgled at him, as he lifted her up, thankful for Jace dragging him to the gym all those years. He carried her into her room and pulled the covers up to her chin before making his way back to his spot and pulling out his phone.

 _Unknown number: 03:42am_  
Alexander. I don’t work on Thursday night, I know this great Ethiopian restaurant.

_Alec Lightwood: 4:10am_  
Magnus. Tell me the address and I’ll meet you there at 7.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this one could be a longer fic, what do you all reckon?
> 
> Alec and Clary are definitely my BROTP.


End file.
